It's a Long Way Down

Chapter Eighty-Eight: Surprises

Ember was getting close to her due date. She had already been pulled from doing rituals, only standing backstage as she watched the others play. She was doing just that as she watched the others play yet another ritual. Ifrit was up there taking her place. The two fire ghouls with Phantom all had great chemistry.

Aether had been out of rehab for nearly 2 weeks now and he was standing next to her watching them play. Ember rubbed her bump as Aether watched Phantom saying, "He's fitting in well."

"Yeah. It didn't take long for Sodo to warm up to him, surprisingly," Ember told him. Aether chuckled, "I heard. Aeris told me all about how Sodo had helped Phantom after finding out he was getting beat up. I had no idea I had a fan club back at the ministry."

"Oh, yeah," Ember said, "It's crazy how crazy they were for you. Some of the people in that group were hell-bent on killing the poor guy."

"I feel bad," Aether said, "He barely gets here to take my place and he's already getting beat up."

"He's getting over it. We all help him out. It's taking some time, but he's getting there," Ember said, "Secret is for him to walk around with me since they know better than to mess with a pregnant ghoul. And that's besides the fear that Sodo had put into them. So walking around with Sodo's pregnant mate is a pretty good deterrent."

Aether chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, giving her a side hug, "I'm gonna miss this, you know?"

"You made a decision that was best for you. That's all that matters. After all, you know your limits," Ember said, leaning into Aether, Sodo looking back into the wings, giving a small wave. Ember giggled and waved back, "He's at least in a good mood today."

"I mean, he's about to have a kit of his own. That's probably what's lifting his spirits," Aether said, "When was your due date again?"

"In 3 days," She said, "I gotta say, I kinda hope he comes sooner. I just want to be able to hold my baby already."

"I know you and Sodo already have a name picked out, but Aether is still a pretty great name," Aether joked. Ember laughed, "I already told you that doesn't work for the type he is."

"It's still a great name. Speaking of names..." Aether said. Ember quickly said, "Yeah, nice try. You don't get to know until after he's born."

Ember and Sodo had been keeping the name a secret. Mainly because they hadn't settled on one yet. Sodo was being very indecisive on the names. Ember had given him two choices that she liked and left it in his hands to choose from the two. One day he'd like one name, the next he'd like the other. He was constantly bouncing between the names and with how close Ember was to giving birth to their son, she was about to just intervene and choose one.

Aether let out a dramatic sigh, "Well, I tried. Aeris really wants to know."

"I don't care who it is. It could be Satan himself and I won't tell," Ember said. Aether smiled softly. He kept watching the show as the band enjoyed themselves. He watched as Rain and Phantom interacted. He watched as Rain took over making Sodo stop his annoying long note at the end of Ritual. He started to realize just how much of it all he would miss going into retirement. Ember looked up at him and said, "I'm sure you could convince Copia to let you do some acoustic shows."

"No, no," Aether said, "I don't want to take anything away from Phantom. From what I heard, he worked really hard to learn all these songs. He deserves to be where he's at. I've been here a while anyway. It's time for a change."

"You saying Sodo and Mountain should retire too?" Ember asked. Aether shrugged, "It's up to them. Sodo still seems to love all of this and Mountain doesn't seem like he's wanting to stop any time soon. For me, it's a good time to retire. Give me a better chance to get my bearings again. Plus, after what I put Aeris through, I need to be there for him. Make sure he knows I'm getting better."